Daily News, Wicked Local reports from the Marathon bombing

Monday

Apr 15, 2013 at 12:01 AMApr 15, 2013 at 3:19 PM

Two bombs exploded seconds apart in Copley Square at the Boston Marathon finish line on Monday, killing at least three people and injuring more than 170 others. Victims named thus far are Krystle Campbell, 29, a Medford native living in Arlington, and 8-year-old Martin Richard of Dorchester. Boston University identified the third victim as Lu Lingzi, a graduate student from Shenyang, China. Investigators believe two improvised explosive devices fashioned from pressure cookers were hidden near the finish line in black, nylon bags.

Staff reports

Two bombs exploded seconds apart in Copley Square at the Boston Marathon finish line just before 3 p.m. on Monday, killing at least three people and injuring more than 170 others, according to city police and area hospitals.

The victims include Krystle Campbell, 29, a Medford native and Medford High School graduate living in Arlington, and 8-year-old Martin Richard of Dorchester, a sports fan and Little League ball player.

Boston University confirmed on its BU Today site that the third victim was Lu Lingzi, a graduate student in mathematics who was watching the race with two friends. WCVB Channel 5 said she was a native of Shenyang, a city in northeastern China.

Medford Mayor Michael McGlynn said he had spoken with Campbell’s father, William, earlier on Tuesday.

“He said, ‘My daughter was a dream daughter. She was just what every father wanted,’” McGlynn said. “Then I heard other comments about how she loved life, how eager and energetic she was.”

Investigators believe two improvised explosive devices fashioned from pressure cookers were hidden near the finish line in black, nylon bags – possibly backpacks, said Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of Boston’s FBI office, in a press conference.

Authorities recovered pieces of black nylon from the bombing scene, as well as BBs and nails that may have been packed in the explosives, DesLauriers said. An FBI lab in Quantico, Va., will review the evidence, he said. Police also are reviewing surveillance camera footage from the scene.

Dr. George Velmahos, chief of trauma surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, said in a televised press conference Tuesday morning that many patients from the bomb scene had severe wounds in their lower bodies, some from pellets, small pieces of metal and pointed spikes that resembled nails without heads.

It remained unclear Tuesday who committed the attacks. President Barack Obama said the bombing is being investigated as “an act of terrorism,” but stressed it is not known if an international group, a domestic organization or an individual is responsible.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday there is no indication the bombing was part of a broader plot.

The blasts occurred 50 to 100 yards apart on Boylston Street, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said Monday. The explosions left behind a gruesome, chaotic scene. Victims lost limbs and blood spattered the streets and sidewalks.

“A guy came in missing two legs,” said a worker who left a medical tent stationed at the finish line, wearing bloody gloves.

Emergency responders took 176 people to area hospitals, Boston Police said in a Twitter post. At one point, Boston Children's Hospital reported that its 10 patients included a 9-year-old girl undergoing surgery for leg trauma and a 2-year-old boy with a head injury.

DesLauriers said authorities received 2,000 tips so far, but especially want to interview people who heard anyone talk about wanting to target the Marathon or with a suspicious interest in explosives. He also sought tips about noises before the attack that might have been bombing test runs or anyone seen carrying a heavy black bag near the finish line.

“Someone knows who did this,” he said. “Cooperation from the community will play a crucial role in this investigation.”

More than 1,000 law enforcement officers are working the case, DesLauriers said.

Speaking alongside DesLauriers and Gov. Deval Patrick on Tuesday, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino announced an account has been set up, called the One Fund for Boston, to help anyone in need after the attacks. Online, donors can visit onefundboston.org.

As the city begins to recover, Obama plans to attend an interfaith prayer service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston’s South End at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Patrick said.

Boston Police also said in a Twitter post on Tuesday that two sweeps of the finish line area to check for bombs turned up nothing before the Marathon.

Monday’s explosions happened roughly two hours after Kenya’s Rita Jeptoo and Ethiopia’s Lelisa Desisa, the winners of the 26.2-mile race, crossed the finish line, but thousands of others were still wrapping up the race.

Survivors, many of them crying, picked themselves up amid shattered glass or stared in disbelief at rising smoke as authorities rushed to close off a 15-block area surrounding the scene and halt remaining runners. Others hugged or stared down at their phones, trying to glean any information they could about what had just happened.

Of 23,326 people who picked up official bibs at the starting line in Hopkinton, 17,854 finished, according to the Boston Athletic Association, which organizes the race. Nearly 5,000 passed the 40k mark without making it to the finish line, while another 1,246 never made it to that point, most likely turned back by police along the route.

Two Boston Marathon volunteers were greeting runners who had made it to the Back Bay finish line at about 2:50 p.m., just before the explosions.

“All right, it’s over,” one said. “Good job, welcome back to Boston.”

The first blast was as loud as a cannon, and a plume of thick grey smoke curled up about 50 feet from the finish line. Another boom resounded seconds later.

After momentary panic, Marathon officials and police began directing people away from the scene as emergency workers rushed toward it. A Marathon announcer, who had been chatting to the crowd about the elite men and women runners and tracking the race, asked everyone over the loudspeaker to leave the area.

Darrel Davis of Sandwich, a 25-year Army veteran who served with the Special Forces in Iraq, was volunteering in the medical tent at the finish line when the blast happened.

“Obviously we weren’t set up for something like that, it happened so fast,” he said.

Medical personnel already on hand in the tent saw about 50 people over the 1 ½ hours, triaging the injured as quickly as possible.

“Because these explosives were full of metal and glass, people were just shredded,” Davis said.

Jeff Bauman, of Chelmsford, lost both legs in the bombing.

“Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, they did help greatly,” wrote his father, Jeff Bauman Sr., in a Facebook post. “Unfortunately my son was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Contrary to earlier reports, Gov. Patrick on Tuesday said no other unexploded devices were found after the bombing. A fire at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in South Boston was originally believed to be connected, but turned out to be unrelated.

Shortly after the attack, Patrick asked people to clear the area as police checked a swath of bags dropped at the scene for explosives.

In another press conference, Obama pledged “every single federal resource necessary” for Massachusetts to respond to the attacks. On Tuesday, DesLauriers said more than 1,000 law enforcement officers from local, state and federal agencies are working the case “methodically, carefully, but with a sense of urgency.”

The FBI is leading the investigation with the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

“We still do not know who did this or why and people shouldn’t jump to conclusions,” Obama said. “But make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this, and we will find out who did this. We will find out why they did this. Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice.”

Shortly after the bombing, the Federal Aviation Administration barred low-flying aircraft from 3½ miles of the site.

Fears spread in surrounding communities. Across the Charles River in Cambridge, police responded to at least two bomb scares. The Massachusetts State Police bomb squad checked out three reports of suspicious packages in Newton Monday, but found nothing.

In Brookline, police deployed officers to help Boston Police divert runners and crowds at Park Drive, said police spokesman Lt. Phil Harrington. Police also stopped runners near St. Ignatius Church in Newton and rerouted people past that point down Commonwealth Avenue to Boston Common to keep them away from the scene of the explosions.

Harrington, who was posted at mile 23, at Beacon and Winthrop streets, said runners were still “shoulder to shoulder” when word came of the attack.

Some communities, including Brookline and Newton, also set up shelters for anyone diverted from the course with nowhere else to go. Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, said the agency coordinated buses to pick up runners along the route and bring them to safe locations.

Jamie Tighe of Franklin was one of thousands of runners who never made it across the Boylston Street finish line. After Tighe and her Dana Farber charity teammate had passed mile 21, but before they reached mile 22, police received word of the finish line bombings and ordered runners off the road.

“The police were just in the middle of the roads saying, ‘You cannot be on the roads,’” she said.

Dehydrated and shivering, Tighe said she and her teammate walked to a medical tent in Coolidge Corner, where they received blankets, water and chicken broth.

Medical staff charged Tighe’s cell phone and she contacted her husband, who was waiting with their two daughters at Fenway Park, where the daughters were planning to run the final miles with their mother. Instead, buses took Tighe and other runners to the Newton war memorial.

“We were all helping each other out, texting loved ones,” she said.

Her husband, who fled downtown with her daughters on the Mass. Turnpike, picked her up in Newton. Meanwhile, she said, her parents were headed to the VIP bleachers, across the street from where the bombs went off.

Tighe said at first, she was disappointed when police stopped the race. She said her training went very well and she had been running faster than she expected as she approached the 35-kilometer mark.

“Then when I heard what happened to other people and how serious it was, that takes a back seat,” she said.

She said the day was scary and reminded her about priorities.

"It’s a medal. I’m alive, I’m OK. I have all my limbs alive. I’m a little chafed, but I’m OK,” she said.

Police in Wellesley checked for suspicious devices along their section of the route after the explosions in Boston. Other police departments along the route – Framingham, Hopkinton and Natick – said they had not performed any additional searches.

Wellesley Police spokeswoman Lt. Marie Cleary said most of the runners had already gone through town by the time the explosions occurred, but officers searched as a precaution.

The Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council team was also activated on Monday, the Natick Police said. The team is made up of police officers from 40 different police departments and has specialized units, such as police dogs and handlers and a SWAT team.

Area communities represented on the team included Dedham, Dover, Medway, Millis, Natick, Needham, Wayland and Wellesley. At least two members from Natick had responded.

With hundreds of runners and thousands of spectators, volunteers and emergency workers in the area near where the bombs went off, many runners weren’t injured, but barely escaped the blasts.

Juan Gusman of San Antonio, Texas, crossed the finish line as the explosions went off. Police threw him over a fence to keep him out of harm’s way. He saw one person with no legs another with only one leg, he said.

Heather Litchfield, a Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School graduate, was in the immediate area when the explosion occurred.

“We suddenly felt and heard a boom, and I just knew it was a bomb,” she said in a Facebook message. “I turned around and could see a mushroom cloud of yellow smoke with white around it and debris.”

Litchfield said she panicked when she heard the second explosion, not knowing what was going to happen next.

“I pulled my boyfriend and pushed people, telling them to run,” she said. “One guy was yelling to stay still. On Newbury (Street), everyone was running. I was hyperventilating and crying, so people were trying to ask us what happened. I was just thinking, we were right there, so it could have been us hit.”

Wellesley resident and runner Julia Edwards said she was stopped just as she was rounding a turn about a third of a mile from the finish line. She heard two explosions several minutes prior, when she was about a half-mile from completing the race.

Dedham marathon runner Brian Keaney said he also was stopped about a half-mile before the finish line. “It became clear we were not going to finish,” he said. “Nobody told us anything. The race just stopped.”

When a reporter reached Keaney, he was in a car on his way back to Dedham.

“Everybody is taking off in the other direction,” he said.

Brendan Smith of Beverly, an eyewitness, texted his father, Kevin: “I was minute away from there, but my girlfriend saw it. It was loud. Shook me to the core. Many were hurt, few dead.”

About 90 seconds after completing their first Boston Marathon, Liz and Alex Goodwin, of Westwood, heard two explosions “in close succession’’ that they initially thought might be from a “confetti cannon.’’

“We’d just finished and were maybe 200 yards away when we heard it. It wasn’t that loud. You couldn’t tell what it was,’’ recalled Liz Goodwin, a 35-year-old consultant. “I said to Alex: I hope the stands didn’t collapse.’’

After heading to a tent by Trinity Church to get their bags, the Goodwins said other runners told them police initially speculated a transformer might have blown up.
As it became clearer the blasts might have come from bombs, Liz Goodwin said, “People were distressed and upset, but not panicky.’’

After trying unsuccessfully to text her mother, the Goodwins saw police cars, ambulances and fire vehicles converge on the area as they left. They saw no injured people.

“We were so excited as we finished. People were cheering. It was so cool,’’ said Liz Goodwin. “In an instant, it turned to shock and deflation and just hoping everybody was OK.’’

Natalie Miller, editor of the Beverly Citizen newspaper, was near the explosion, cheering with friends near the finish line when she heard the first blast.

“As I turned around to see what happened, a second explosion erupted, and the scene turned from joyous to terrifying,” Miller wrote. “Smoke and fire filled the air as people began to run away in fear and confusion.

“As I began to instinctively move toward the commotion, people around me were shouting, crying, grabbing their loved ones and trying to comprehend the situation. I was suddenly grabbed by a friend and dragged in the opposite direction of the explosion. The big questions on our minds were what just happened and would there be more explosions. Most didn’t wait to find out. I quickly joined the masses as we made our way down Dartmouth Street toward the bridge into Cambridge.”

As the sun set and the temperature dropped Monday night in Copley Square, runners who never crossed the finish line, still shivering under foil blankets, collected bags they dropped off nearly 12 hours prior.

“You know what? God was looking out for me. I could have been at the finish line,” said Jim Goodman, from Los Angeles, as he picked up his bag.